XP 590

Great video, I've only fished Crane once and loved it. How was the water flow? What area were you fishing--if you don't mind? Also, did you see any redds or spawning activity? I can't wait to get back there. Thanks Dave

Great trip and photos. You guys are hardcore. I've never floated that upper area of the Current. Is it good strong current? I'd like to float it late spring in my Water Skeeter but those are alot of work in slow or slack current. Is it good steady water between Tan Vat and Baptist, or Baptist and Parker? Thanks for the info. Dave

Jerry and Brenda were two of a kind....the finest kind. We've had our family camper down there since 1978. Seriously, how many places will let you keep a beat up old '59 Shasta there for $10 a month? They were a shining example of the type of people that belong in the hospitality business. We will miss them.

I miss the little fishies that changed color! Just kidding, great board. Thanks for the upkeep Phil

I've only fished Crane once as posted recenlty and I was amazed by it's beauty and I loved the opportunity and challenge of catching wild trout. I'm chosing not to fish the stream at all during the spawn. It's possible that any fish caught during this time could be "spawners", even if we don't witness them in the act and I would rather not put the additional pressure on them. I don't want to risk doing any harm to the population at all as I'd like to be able to continue fishing there for years to come. Also, I did speak to an MDC fisheries biologist in my local TU chapter and his recommendation was "better safe than sorry". Just my thoughts.

I had Proline Breathable's that I bought at Weaver's Tackle store outside Bennett and returned two pairs just under their one year warrenty. They redesigned them a few years ago and added a second layer from the knee down to the boot and both mine leaked into there. They didn't leak into the waders themselved and get me wet but they leaked in between the two layers so when I got out of the water, I was walking around with big bags of water from the knee down. My first pair, prior to that was great until I ripped them wide open and needed to replace them. Jerry Miller at Weaver's confirmed that problem since they added the second layer and he's had a bunch of them returned. By the way, Weaver's is the place to go to if you're fishing Bennett or the Niangua, great people, products and service. That was two years ago and Proline may have fixed the problem since then Personally, I like the breathable style, even in winter, I just wear long johns and fleece and stay toasty warm. FYI-I replaced them with Hodgeman Breathable Bootfoot waders and they have developed a small leak at the seam just above the crotch-----that's a cold shot trust me! I guess if you're only using them for duck hunting it shouldn't be a problem but be prepared if you wade in them.

Barclay was good, I can usually catch a handful of fish there, and I had the place to myself, a big plus about fishing this time of year.

I fished Bennett in the morning then drove down to Barclay for a few hours. The water was beautiful, a little up, and running strong. Was able to land a few rainbows, olive woolly bugger and big #10 Orange/Partridge soft hackles did the trick. When I drove across the Niangua bridge on 64 about 1:00, I saw one lone fisherman downstream by the canoe launch area. That must have been you PC?

Glad to hear their service is superior. I bought a TFO 8' 2wt after a guide brought his for me to use on some small creeks and I love the thing. It took me a while to get used to it since all I've ever used was a 9' 5wt, but this rod difinitely has it's applications. I recently caught a 15" McCloud rainbow on Crane Creek with it and got a run for the money. It's very responsive and still had enough backbone for me to muscle that fish away from some rootballs, land it quickly, and release it before it got exhausted. We met the owner, several reps, and Lefty Kreh at the ISE in Denver last year and they are a great bucnh. Hope I never need their service but it's good to know it's there.

FFM, sorry if I misunderstood the question. WHERE we fished the weigted woolys and streamers was mostly in zone 2. Our best luck was in the area below the main bridge. That water is usually a little riffle then a deeper tailout but with the higher water, the riffle was hard to notice but that area was packed with fish. XP590

Laker, I think that was my brother that took the slip. FFM-We were definitely using heavy weighted stuff, the stream was running high and it took some weight to get down to the fish. I was using size 6-10 bead head wooly buggers and cone head leaches mainly, fishing them on a variety of swings and retrieves. XP 590

Had a great weekend before Thanksgiving at Bennett. Was hoping to fish the Niangua but it was running high so we fished in the park Friday and Saturday. The water in the park was up also but fishing was good, mainly on Woolybuggers and other streamers. We caught lots of rainbows including a nice mini-whopper that my brother landed, and I also got into a fun pocket of goggle eye in the Suzy hole.

My brother and I fished Crane Creek for the first time last Wednesday and had a blast. We had beautiful 65 degree weather, sunny and clear. After looking around in the city park, we drove up to the upper Wire Road access to start. It had rained for the few days before that and I thought the creek would be muddy but it was crystal clear. We worked our way downstream from there and I swung a soft hackle into a few small beauties. A little further down, we found a nice scour hole that was at least 8 feet deep and was holding a few whoppers. One of them had to be 20" plus. We took turns there getting big nympsh down to them and I hooked into a nice 15 incher that took my 8ft, 2wt TFO for a ride. My brother hooked into a bigger one that ran for the tree and broke him off. My pictures don't do these fish justice, they were beautiful and I'll definitely be back. This is my first time trying to post pics so I hope they come up ok.

YO!

Their lives have changed, there's no turning back once they have learned the way of the trout!

I forgot to mention in my last post about the otters I saw. When I was fishing down at Barclay I saw at least a half dozen otters. Since they are moving around it's hard to say exactly how many I saw, but I did see 3 pop up at once all together, then a few on the other side, and they all looked fat and happy. That's got to be having an impact on the fish population in the Niangua. Mike from Riverfront shuttled me that day and he said he's seen lots of otters in there too. Any comments and information?

Thanks for the info and soft hackle pattern. I'd like to swap but don't tie my own flies....yet. I just bought a starting set up and have managed to churn out a few basic woolybuggers. The soft hackle looks like another easy one and I'm going to try it next. I've been buying mine from Brett Rader at Chartered Waters on Taneycomo. He's the guide that showed me how to fish them a few years ago and I'm hooked on them. His patterns have killed for me on the Current and Niangua. Soft hackles are so easy to fish and I love the feel when they yank that line out of your hand on the bite.

I floated from Bennett to Barclay last Friday. It was overcast and cool all day but the fishing was OK. I caught a few in that long stretch below Riverwood cabins, that always seems to be good. There's a monster swimming around in there somewhere with my purple woolybugger in his mouth! I saw a huge flash and felt one massive headthump and he snapped my 5x like it wasn't there. I didn't fish much below NRO until I got to Barclay but I caught a bunch there, all on woolybuggers swung deep or soft hackles swung shallow. There were a bunch of those little ones I was telling you about in that area, but I also caught 4 nice browns in the 12-15" range, and about a half dozen rainbows. I floated in my water skeeter and I like it OK but in low, slack water, it takes a lot of effort to get downstream. Does anybody have any experience getting around in a kayak? I'm not that concerned about fishing from the boat, mainly just in getting around from spot to spot. Thanks

WOW! I had no idea this would bring up such lively discussion, thanks to everyone for your input and opinions. I don't intend to get into an online argument with a bunch of people that I don't know personally, maybe I'll run into some of you on the water some day and get to know you. It seems like everyone on here has good reasons to support their opinions and I think this board is an incredible wealth of information. Strictly speaking from my own experience, I'm very glad to live in a state with an active conservation agency that provides us with great sporting opportunities. I've had many friends move away from Missouri and they often comment to me that we don't know how well we have it here in that respect. The opportunity we have to catch non native fish, like trout, in our waters is something I don't take for granted, it has become my favorite hobby over the last few years. I don't claim to know this stretch of river like the back of my hand and clearly, many of you have much more experience on the Niangua than I do, but I have been fishing there alot the last few years and have always caught plenty of fish. In the last few months, I've stood at the lower end of the Barclay riffle repeatedly and caught dozens of browns early in the morning, including lots of these smaller ones I was talking about and that is why I brought up this discussion in the first place. I've also been reading every piece of info I can find about our Ozark streams and talking to people that I consider to be well educated on the subject and I agree with other opinions on here that trout mortality on the Niangua is probably very high. Weather permitting, I'm floating on my water skeeter from Bennet to Barclay tomorrow and hope to have good fishing to report. Thanks again for all the input.

I posted some info a few weeks ago about catching a bunch of small browns around Barclay that seemed too small to be stockers. I met a guy in my local TU chapter who works for the fishery department at MDC whose name I won't divulge, but he does have a locally famous mohair leech named after him. He told me that they just stocked another 4000 browns in the Niangua in May including alot of these smaller ones. Apparently the browns are very hard to raise in captivity and they were having higher mortality this year so they are stocking higher numbers, and a bigger variety of sizes into the streams. That sounds like good news to me, some day we'll be pulling whopper browns from the Niangua!

I hit the Niangua over the weekend for a few hours late Saturday and early Sunday......post-canoe/pre-canoe. The water was as low and clear as I've seen it. Saturday evening I fished around the Bennett Access on only landed one....a smallmouth. I hit Barclay about 7 AM on Sunday and couldn't get a bite on my standard woolybuggers and 6x tippet. I switched to 7x and a double rig of soft hackles and started hooking up steadily on Browns, and the occasional little sucker or shiner, I don't know what they are called. I landed one nice fat 14" Brown, and a bunch of little teeny ones, under 6". I was talking to Jerry at Weaver's about the Browns they stock on the Niangua and he doesn't think they stock any that small, but he also said the biologists tell him that the Browns can't naturally reproduce on the Niangua. Do any of you with experience on the Niangua have any info on that? Jerry did say that lots of other people have reported catching very small Browns out there also. Any fisheries biologists out there? **** Or for fellow Seinfeld fans " Is there a marine biologist in the crowd?"

So much for easy pickin's. Due to a gullywasher Wednesday night, the river had risen about 2-3 feet by the time I got there. I was watching the gage and it took a 90 degree upward spike about 1:00 Thursday afternoon. It made for some good swimming and cooling off but tough fishing, fast and murky. I managed one smallmouth and missed a few other good hits Thursday night, then opted for sleeping in Friday morning.

Thanks for all the info about the water gages on the Niangua. I'm hitting the Bennet Access and/or Barclay Thursay PM and early Friday AM with the flyrod. If past patterns hold, it's right around the monthly stocking time on the Niangua and it makes for some easy pickin's. I'll post a report after.

Great report Kyle, I've just started fishing the Current myself and hit it twice earlier in the season with great luck. I'm planning on some big 'ol brown lunker hunting in the fall if I can get away.

I'm trying to get a handle on the river levels at and below Bennett. I've got the USGS link for Tunnel Dam at Mack's Creek, and the one for the gage house at Bennett. How far is the Tunnel Dam from Bennett? Are there any other Niangua USGS readings closer to Bennett? How does this all translate to figuring out what the river is like just below Bennett? Thanks for the info.